The process of immobilizing or restraining a resisting subject without causing serious injury to the subject or an arresting officer has been and continues to be one of the most difficult problems facing law enforcement officers. In a typical situation, one or more law enforcement officers are confronted with a hostile often physically aggressive and strong subject who is unwilling to submit to law enforcement officer control. All too frequently, such persons are emotionally distraught, or worse, under the influence of intoxicants or drugs and thus are unable to be dealt with in a reasonable fashion. In such circumstances, public safety and effective law enforcement requires that police officers utilize whatever force is reasonably necessary to subdue and control such an individual. The legal and societal constraints upon police officers in subduing a hostile subject restricts the force exercisable by the police officer and the injury to the subject tolerated.
Similar problems often arise in other circumstances such as the control of patients within mental health facilities, drug treatment facilities, or private security forces employed by property owners to protect customers and property assets.
In attempting to meet the need to provide effective restraint apparatus and subject immobilizing apparatus without imparting serious injury to the subject, practitioners in the art have provided various devices and systems. These attempts have included chemical agent sprays such as the well known mace and pepper spray apparatus in which a pressurized canister contains the mace or pepper spray chemical together with a pressurized vehicle and trigger controlled spray nozzle to facilitate spraying a chemical material upon a subject. Additional devices such as police batons, electric shock prods often called "cattle prods" and devices known as stun guns or tasers have also been provided. Unfortunately, the use of police batons often seriously injures the subject due to the substantial damage required to be caused before a subject becomes immobilized. Similar lack of success has been experienced with electric shock apparatus such as cattle prods, stun guns and tasers, due in part to the insulating effect of outer clothing and the need for precision application for maximum effect.
Additional devices have been provided for law enforcement restraints such as that set forward in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,079 issued to Mason which sets forth a POLICE RESTRAINT DEVICE utilizing the principle of a second class lever which comprises an arm clamp having two rigid elongated handles or sticks adapted to be held and manipulated manually. A single strong flexible cord or rope of predetermined length extends between the distal ends of the handles to form an integral junction therebetween. Each end of the cord is snugly enclosed with a crimped metal cap or sleeve inserted into a blind or at the distal end of the associated stick.
In a related patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,097 also issued to Mason, there is set forth a METHOD OF MAKING A POLICE RESTRAINT DEVICE in which the fabrication of a police restraint device having a pair of handles or sticks having a strong flexible cord or rope extending between the end portions thereof is set forth.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have, in some circumstances, proven adequate and are often used by various law enforcement officers or the like, their success has been extremely limited and a continuing need in the art exists for a more effective humane and less injurious method and apparatus for restraining and immobilizing a resisting subject.